Convert js Array() to JSon object for use with JQuery .ajax

Question

Hi,

in my app i need to send an javascript Array object to php script via ajax post. Something like this:

var saveData = Array();
saveData["a"] = 2;
saveData["c"] = 1;
alert(saveData);
$.ajax({
    type: "POST",
    url: "salvaPreventivo.php",
    data:saveData,
    async:true
    });

Array's indexes are strings and not int, so for this reason something like saveData.join('&') doesn't work.

Ideas?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Don't make it an Array if it is not an Array, make it an object:

var saveData = {};
saveData.a = 2;
saveData.c = 1;

// equivalent to...
var saveData = {a: 2, c: 1}

// equivalent to....
var saveData = {};
saveData['a'] = 2;
saveData['c'] = 1;

Doing it the way you are doing it with Arrays is just taking advantage of Javascript's treatment of Arrays and not really the right way of doing it.

Answer 2

You can iterate the key/value pairs of the saveData object to build an array of the pairs, then use join("&") on the resulting array:

var a = [];
for (key in saveData) {
    a.push(key+"="+saveData[key]);
}
var serialized = a.join("&") // a=2&c=1